I could have titled this as “things which I wish I had known at 18” or even 16 or 30….but it is experience which teaches you….

1. Focus: it is tough, but worth doing. Swami Vivekananda called it concentration. Learn to concentrate -it helps you as a student, and throughout life.
2. Meditate: well it sounds too heavy? practice deep breathing. Remember we all did it as kids. Then we forgot. Just reminding you, you can remain calm.
3. Drink a lot of water: even when you have a sugar craving drink water. You may STILL have a sugar craving – but you have surely reduced the number of times that you crave for sugar. In a worst case you have postponed it. Don’t worry, you will get better.
4. Exercise: you know this, right?
5. Do not depend on others for happiness, respect, etc. It does not matter. Don’t crave for anything ephemeral.
6. Don’t consume general news – it can torture you and you can live without it
7. Don’t consume financial noise – I have spoken enough about financial porn – beware it is increasing!
8. Read books – I have a whole list of investment books on my blog. Also read autobiographies, history, geography, philosophy, religion, …all this make you a far better investor and a calmer person. Remember no news paper, but tons of books.
9. Learn behavioral finance – you will know what mistakes you are making and why
10. TEDx, Youtube, …whatever have tons of useful stuff and super super tonnes of useless stuff. Be careful of getting addicted.
11. Communism, Socialism, Facebook, – all are good if you do it voluntarily and within limits. Be careful of addiction.
12. Don’t give up asking “what if” – What if I wrote instead of going to a client meeting? fair enough…but keep asking.
13. Not having the answers does not mean you should not ask the questions. Keep asking “what if fuel prices come down”?
14. Every day write down a few ideas to make money, to improve, …etc. at least you will get better at writing!!!
15. Learn public speaking – it is scary but lets you meet a lot of people!!
16. Don’t argue – its an amazing waste of energy. Just move on.
17. Avoid people who suck your energy – even if they are your clients. This should perhaps be No. 1 priority on a daily basis.
18. Exercise your creative muscle – reading, writing, speaking, mentoring – all help.
19. You will do many things in life and then connect – but have focus on what you are doing.
20. Nothing more that I can think of now!